2023 year in review

It's been an interesting year. Then again, aren't they all?

Most importantly, we are all healthy and relatively happy and everyone still speaks to each other, for the most part. As I type, Marci is in the kitchen getting dinner ready; Riley is at Target, working until about 7; Haley is downstairs with her "friend" John; Kody is on his bed snoozing; I am on the couch typing this up and watching the Packers vs Vikings.

For me, it's been a meh year professionally. Job ended in January with Amazon as my contract was up. I knew that was the case as that was what I accepted. What I didn't realize was that after my job ended, the bottom fell out of the tech industry and 1000s of people lost their jobs all over the country. I figured I'd be able to find a job, but with the economy in the toilet and everyone on a hiring freeze, that became difficult.

As a result, it was back to unemployment for the second time in my life. Unless I count a week in 2019 when we were asked by Atos to take a week off for something, in which case, it would be my third time. But, I digress.

Thankfully, I got unemployment and that helped us to get by. But the trouble was, I couldn't get a callback or an interview. I had plenty of connections, but no one was hiring. I had a little thing going on the side and considered starting a business, but I didn't and I just did some odd jobs here and there to help out.

Through the job drought, I kept it up with bass in Planets and the Sunset Grooves. Kathy dialed me up, but only once for the year; her SPT seems to not be gigging out as much anymore. Planets did 7 gigs, Sunsets did 10, and then my sideman gig with Forest Ray did 12 over the span of 2 weeks through Oregon and California. Despite playing 31 gigs, I would like to do more.

Come May/June, I got a call to go back to work, but also was able to finesse that road trip with Forest Ray. Though I had a bunch of fun with those guys, I don't know if I'd do it again, at least not under those circumstances. Maybe a shorter tour, or if there were lodging and food guarantees in place, but I definitely understand the situation better now. I was hoping it would open things up network-wise, but so far, nada. Which is fine; I love the 2 bands I'm in now and hope I can get more gigs with them in 2024.

In early June, Marci and I visited Haley up in Bellingham. We basically spent one night there, having an AirBnB gift card that we used to book a place. That was a fun getaway and nice to see Haley there doing her thing. We had only seen her in Bellingham in January when we dropped her off to start school. As far as I can tell, she seems to be thriving a bit there, compared to her experience at Concordia. She lived in the dorm for the first part of the year and had a roommate that seemed pretty cool. She came home for the summer and worked at the Coal Creek Y and had some HR drama there, which was super lame, but she seemed to get through that OK enough. She's now renting a place up there with 4 or 5 other girls, and seems to get along with all of them.

Add in this John guy, and she's growing up a bit. Though Hay hasn't told us that they're dating, it sure seems like they are. He's been here 2-3 times this week and she's spent the night at his place a few times as well. But, as with all things Hay, we pretty much need to let her come to us; asking her could put us in a bad position, as lame as that is. She does come to us for help with finances, as challenging as that is for all of us, but we try our best to help her out.

Riley has gotten in his groove at Colorado Mesa. He's doing well with his double major, with Tech Drama and something else, I forget. He seems to be a guy that the professors are investing time and energy with, sort of like the teachers did at NHS. He has his car at school and though that's helpful to him, it's gonna be a pain in May when I have to fly out there and help him drive it back. Better start saving now!

He and Claire are still together and she's been over on the regular as well. They're both working at Target again. Riley gets a lot of love from Target; they appreciate his hustle and leadership. Don't think he has a career in retail but I love that he's learning so much there. He's got a few more weeks here until he goes back to CMU. Hopefully the money he's making helps to carry him through the rest of the school year. He has taken out a loan for school, which sucks, but it is what it is now.

Marci is carrying the house these days. She's teaching like a beast and picking up a couple hours here and there doing tutoring, including our backdoor neighbor's kid, George. I wish we were in a position where she didn't have to work (or at least go to work), and could just be at home and do her thing, but until I can uplevel my career, this is her lot in life, I guess. :/

With the kids out of the house most days now, I feel like Marci and I are stronger than ever. I realized that when the kids are here, I have an "audience" and do act a little differently, and sometimes joke a bit too much at her expense. At the same time, I feel like I'm the one that tries to learn and evolve, where she sort of just goes along, without trying to grow. I don't know who is right or wrong, but it doesn't matter too much. We are good most of the time and I'm happy with that.

I don't know if there's much else to add here without getting too specific about anything. I guess it boils down to my usual response when someone asks me how we are doing. I always say that I can't complain, for the reasons I mentioned above (healthy, happy, etc). If the main drama in my life is the need to find a job, well, I'll take it.

Speaking of jobs, I have a hot lead again at Microsoft, possibly for my old role. Last year at this time, I was talking to those dudes and it was positive. They all agreed they'd like to have me back, but I was a "nice to have" not a "need to have," and they had no budget to make it happen. This year, I am a business need, but it's still under discussion and seeing about budget. I'm keeping my fingers crossed and have a good feeling. Hopefully by this time in January, we are green lit and I am either working or starting work again.

And rather than make this any longer than it already is, I think I'll stop here, start different entries for other stuff. To sum it up, another year in the books, things are good, let's have more of the same.

Gig report: 12/15/2023 Sunset Grooves at the Lime

In however many years of gigging, I can only remember playing the Eastside maybe once or twice. Make it three times after last night, when the Sunset Grooves played the Lime in Kirkland. Even having lived on the Eastside for so long, I had never been inside the Lime.

We were asked by our friend, Ric, who fronts the excellent Prince tribute band, DMSR. This has been on the calendar for only a bit, but we were excited for it and it was our last show of the year. Added bonus was that Marci and Alison were going to be in the crowd, as Ali is visiting from out of town for work.

Alison, me, Marci.

I have been practicing our tunes for a bit now, as we had some new ones to debut (Orleans - Still The One and Styx - Too Much Time On My Hands), as well as some others that we've had some struggles with (Jay Ferguson - Thunder Island and America - You Can Do Magic). I brought both G&L L-1000s and my pedalboard and that was that.

Inside the Lime, stage is behind me.

I was surprised at how big the Lime was when I got there. Walk in the double doors and it's pretty dang big. Bar, kitchen, bathrooms on wall opposite doors, pool tables, pull tabs, dart boards to the left, stage, dance floor and tables to the right. Unfortunately, with all the room, there is no band staging area/green room, so I stood there in front of the stage while Dusty set up his drums. DMSR was on stage prepping for soundcheck and there literally was nowhere else to be, as there were a lot of people in the club.

Dennis (aka Unc) was doing double duty, playing guitar in both bands. He's been such a solid addition to the band, really nailing his guitar parts, solos and vocals and elevating our overall performance. Plus, he looks great on stage. DMSR did a quick run-through of 1999 for sound check and then tore down for us to set up. There was no drum sharing as their drummer had a full electronic kit and more wires than a server room. Pretty crazy.

Quick snap of DMSR getting set up.

Robert on bass for DMSR. He is wicked!

We got setup and ran through Player's Baby Come Back for sound check. It was a little awkward for me as I couldn't hear my bass or vocals very well and we hadn't played that song for a few weeks, so it was rough. Not a great selling point for those in the audience, but I think they understood we were simply checking levels.

Even so, for whatever reason, I felt like I was hearing my bass from the wedges and not through my IEMs. I had the sound guy turn it up and then it was too loud. I was able to manage, though I didn't have the optimal mix. My vocals were up front and I could hear just enough of everyone else to make it work.

Marci and Ali asked if I had earplugs, which I didn't but Unc had some, so after sound check, I handed them some. We took a quick picture, and then a woman asked if she could take our picture for us, so she did. And then she asked me if I was giving out "happy pills." I wasn't sure what she meant as I walked away and got a glass of water. A few moments later, I realized that she thought I was giving out those "happy pills," which were the earplugs. I told her that and she seemed a little bummed out. Go Kirkland!

Speaking of Kirkland, the draw at the Lime was pretty great. Lots of people, very diverse and eclectic, but so Eastside. I feel like there were all ages there; it didn't skew young or old, but there was definitely representation from all generations. Though, being more used to crowds at Seattle shows, this crowd was definitely more cringey at times, if that makes sense.

Anyway, we got on stage and got on with the show. We started with Don't Stop by Fleetwood Mac and I was pleased to see dancers right from the jump. Sound was good enough, but my bass felt super boomy and I couldn't determine if it was the IEMs or the monitors on the floor or the FOH speakers. Nevertheless, I could at least hear, so that's good.

We continued with Brandy, and that was fine. I'm trying a different "oooh" backing vocal in the bridge and hit it wrong at first, but adjusted. I'll get it eventually. Next up was Still The One, and we had tried that way back when, but never worked on it much. With Dennis shoring up the guitars, though, we gave it a try and found we were pretty close. That song has so many guitars in it, and vocals, so we do what we can and I thought it ended up great.

We had something like 20 songs to get through and I feel like we did a great job overall, maybe our best performance yet. Another song we had shelved, Reelin' in the Years, we brought back. The high part in the chorus was tough for Jen, so I took it over and she did the middle harmony and we are finally doing that song justice. Plus, Dennis is nailing the solos, which makes a huge difference.

There were more people on the floor, I promise!

Oh! We had a sax for Maneater! DMSR has a multi-instrumentalist and Unc asked him to play on Maneater. He didn't rehearse with us but he knew the part and jumped on stage and killed it. It was so cool to hear that iconic solo during that song, I loved it.

For the whole set, we had dancers. Marci and Ali were dragged on the floor by various gentlemen. I had a great time watching the crowd. The girls got absorbed by some Lime locals and had some hilarious stories to tell at the end of the night.

We ended up cutting the set short by about 3 songs due to time. We had a great reception and I felt super happy about our performance, we all played really well. We did the awkward teardown of our gear and got off the stage. DMSR got up there and tore it up. They are fantastic and the crowd was extra lubed up for them.

DMSR!

Overall a great night and a really fun way to wrap up my year in live shows. I can't wait to do it again.

Next up, Planets at the Tractor, 1/3/2024.

Coming up against it

Looks like my last day at work is going to be 12/9 (which is a Saturday, so likely the 8th). And as far as prospects go, there are none.

My lead at Microsoft dried up, though there is still a lead, it's likely that there will be no updates until next year sometime. In the meantime, I have started applying for jobs and it's the same depressing task as it was earlier in the year. I'm a middle-of-the-road, > 50-year-old worker looking for a job that can just pay the bills. Trouble is, what I can do and what I have "on paper" are not enough to get a job that pays what I need to get. At this point, I am making $10/hr less than I made last year, but it is still a decent living. However, with that ending, I understand that I likely won't find that magic number right away, if at all.

I scrolled through Indeed.com and found some gigs, including one for a seasonal driver for UPS. Basically, deliver packages with my car, couple hours a day. The listing indicated a $23-$35 hourly rate. I was thinking of seeing if I could get in at $35 or so, but after applying online, the automated system offered $23/hr. So there's that, but it's not super exciting, to be honest. The reality is, accepting something like that would be a long game, getting my foot in the door and seeing if I could grow and/or turn it into something more higher paying.

I've applied to a few other jobs as well but have heard nothing back. None of them are super high paying, more like $75-85k, so I'm hoping to get some sort of callback. I'd really like to get out of tech, get into a smaller company, but that's been tough as well. My network is willing to help, but even they can only do so much.

Going back to do the Red Door thing is there, but man, I'm not 100% sold on that. I have to give it some more thought. Maybe I'm just being lazy; I think there's a market for what I can do: better-than-average tech support for everyday problems provided by a regular dude. Maybe market it as appointments lasting no longer than 2 hours for a flat rate of, say, $125. And then subsequent visits are $100 every 2 hours? Who knows?

At this point, I'd rather pursue music and at least enjoy myself, try to eek out a minimalistic living that way. But we all know that's not gonna happen in the most expensive place to live in the USA. Maybe if I was living in a garbage can in the middle of nowhere. But then there'd be no gigs to play; at least here, there are some gigs. I just gotta put myself out there.

I'm just so annoyed and disgruntled. I am a good worker, mentor, person, and it seems like I have to solve a Rubik's Cube before I can even get anyone to reply to me. I have helped plenty of people in the past, and though they owe me nothing, I can't seem to get the same kind of help, outside of someone who reposted some template that tried to pump me up. Admittedly, I didn't put a lot of effort into that.

I've got about 3 working weeks left before my paychecks dry up and then I have to be back on unemployement. Maybe at that point, I'll sign up with UPS, so there's at least something. Heck, maybe I reach out to Jon and see about the Uber thing; he seems to like it a lot and has made a few bucks doing it.

All I can do is shake my head; my lack of planning coming up in the ranks has led me to this point. I only have myself to blame.

Gig report: 10/19/23 Planets in the Ocean at Conor Byrne

This gig was a fun one. I wanted to play Conor Byrne in Ballard as I never had before. I'd seen some shows there before, but always as a spectator. I reached out the booker a few months ago and put together the bill with my friend, Steve's band, Square Peg. They're new, having only a few gigs under their collective belts, but have all been around for a minute. And I also got the Zack Static Sect on the bill. I'd heard cool things about them and saw them do a vinyl release at Easy Street in August and thought they were great. Plus, old Seattle music vet, Scott Sutherland, is in the band, so that was cool too.

As we prepped for the show over the last few weeks, Steve N. from Square Peg was kind enough to pay for some posters. We used a guy that Zack had used before and the guy banged out some great images for us to print and post.

I left the house around 6, just in time for rush hour. These Thursday shows start around 8-ish, so soundcheck is a 7. I got to Ballard about 50 minutes later and loaded in, which consisted of my bass and pedalboard. Steve R. from Square Peg was kind enough to backline his sweet Aguilar Tone Hammer rig with 2 12" speakers. Small and tasty.

Prior to the gig, Cass offered his drums to backline and I thought Zack said his drummer would use them. Apparently he said he wanted to use his own drums, not Cass', so there was a little confusion, but we worked it out.

After sorting that out, I hoofed it a few blocks away to grab some ramen, which I brought back to Conor Byrne to eat. I got a chance to talk to my mates, as well as some friends who were there: Michael M., Jeff B., Mike M. and Amy D., Andi W., and others. All friends, but more fans of music than people that come specifically for me. These days, I don't care as much as I used to. I put out the info, if they come, they come, and if they don't, there's always next time.

Zack Static Sect took the stage first. A three piece, with Zack on vocals and guitar, Scott on Fender Bass VI and Duane on drums. Garage punk, 3-chords-and-a-cloud-of-dust and a lot of flair to go with it. Not snarling, tattooed punk, but almost surf/50's influenced punk. A lot of fun and I had a smile on my face the whole time.

Really enjoyed Zack's song about his wife, called "Mari Likes to Ride (the Subway Train)," about Mari taking subways in Tokyo, where she's from. Both Zack and Scott liked to jump and levitate during songs. Duane bashed the heck out of Cass' drums and they just put on a high-energy, boot-stompin' show.

Zack, Scott and Duane (who is invisible).

After ZSS played, we were up next. Since Steve had his rig there, I didn't play with my Tone Hammer pedal. Scott's bass sounded fine through it and I figured my L1K would as well. I brought the Hog as Goldie got the last show (man I hate having named my basses, but it's more about the color than a name).

We played the same set as last time and I thought it went pretty well. I get a little sloppy on the high energy songs, like Sit and Spin, specifically. There's a lot of weird picking on that one, and syncopation, and energy, and it just gets sloppy at the end. I hope it doesn't come off wrong when I play it. I'll have to get a recording sometime and see what it sounds like.

Mike Mitchell with the pics, yet again!

Square Peg followed our set with a nice little set of their own. I saw their first gig way back in March and they've really grown since then. Steve N. on guitar and vocals writes tidy little rockin' power pop tunes. Steve R. on bass locks down the bottom with tasty licks and solid foundational parts on his Fender Jazz, and Dan on drums really brings some frenetic energy and provides backing vocals.

Square Peg!

At the end of it all, we made some new friends and fans. We talked about future shows. Scott had some real kind, bass player type words to say to me. He and I played on bills in the mid-2000's, early 2010's, when I played with Lund Bros. and he was in all the bands (Llama, Paul Lynde Fan Club, others that I forget). He came up and asked, "When did you start playing with a plectrum?" I told him I taught myself over the pandemic and he was just blown away by that. He remembered me as a finger player (which I was) and thought he'd be the only bassist with a pick.

When it was time to settle up, the bar wrote all three bands separate checks for... $38.00. I left the house at 6pm, I got home around midnight, so 6 hours got me about $12 and change. About $2/hr and I also bought dinner for $21 after tip. Not to count gas money, too. Good thing I'm not doing it for the money. I'd do it all again right now if I could.

Next up, nothing! No gigs on the radar, but may have something just after the new year.

Gig report: 10/14/23 Sunset Grooves at Sleight of Hand Winery SODO

By way of Stereo Embers and Planets in the Ocean, I got friendly with Trey B., who owns Sleight of Hand Winery. He has two locations, one in Walla Walla and one in SODO. Those other bands had played there, but Sunset Grooves never had. My friend's Fleetwood Mac tribute band, Wild Rumours, had as well, and I figured if a night of FM songs could play well at SOH, so could a night of yacht rock songs. I reached out to Trey earlier in the year, like March or so, and he said, yeah, let's book something... in October!

So the good part was we had a gig with the winery on the books; the bad part was waiting 6+ months for it to happen.

Finally, yesterday was gig day. I spent the day watching the Huskies barely hang on against the Ducks, so that was great. Left the house at 5:30 for a 6pm load-in. Traffic was fine despite competing with a GnR show at the Climate Pledge Arena.

Cool thing about SOH (despite being closer to me than most of our other venues) is that they have secured, covered parking. As musicians, we get to park inside and have flat and close load-in for all our gear. As with many of our shows, we had to bring in the PA, mics and lighting. Poor Dusty and Jen do most of the schlepping around as the gear is kept at Jen's house. I was able to help load in, and then the setup began.

Eric and Dennis showed up a little later, as did our sound guy, Aeden, who also ran sound for us at our Lake Whatcom gig a few weeks ago. He's a nice kid; super helpful and friendly and remembered certain things about my individual setup that I had forgotten about.

After getting set up, Dennis, Eric and I hoofed around the corner to find something to eat. The pizza place only did slices during the day, so we were out of luck, so I headed to the San Juan Seltzery and got a burger and fries (side note, the guy also delivers to SOH. Cool!).

Our stage.

Daniel, the venue manager, attaching our recorder to the lighting rig.

Back at SOH, we did some sound checking and ran through part of a song to get dialed in. Crowd-wise, I was told they sold 130 tickets to their wine club members, and though we definitely did not have that type of turnout, the 40-50 or so people that did end up coming throughout the night were energetic and appreciative.

A little while later, burgers were delivered, devoured and set aside. It was time to get dressed for the show. I busted out my thrift store special, a suit covered with flamingos, and got ready to throw down.

Found this suit at Goodwill for $10!

I started the night on the 84 L-1000 with the thumb rest. As mentioned before, there are some songs I slap on and since I am no slapping whiz on the bass, I try to make it as advantageous to myself as I can. Using this bass and having "Somebody's Baby" on the set means minimal slapping. On the other slapping song we play, "Peg," which has a bunch of slapping, I switch to the Gold L-1000, which works out just fine.

The basses.

The setlist.

Eric proposed at the top of the show that we have a competition on who made the least amount of mistakes. I can definitely say I wasn't perfect, and neither was Eric, though I cannot say who won (or lost). Either way, we played pretty well for the most part.

Looking back at the set, I felt pretty good and, ironically, on likely one of our easier songs on bass, "Hot Child in the City," I made a couple mistakes with rhythm, which messed up my notes. "Love Will Keep Us Together" is super challenging as well, especially when throwing in backing vocals, but that turned out pretty well. Everything else felt pretty good.

For my in-ears, I did bring my iPad to tweak things, but overall, I heard what I needed to, for the most part. I had my bass and vocals up front, with keys, guitar, and backing vocals a little less. As I played on, I felt like I needed more of my vocals, as well as guitar. I was able to hear some of Jen's vocals via the PA speakers. I asked Aeden to tweak a bit, but it's so hard to judge it in the moment. I figured as long as I could hear OK, it wasn't worth killing the momentum to get it right.

We took a quick break after the first set and got back to work after some water and bathroom breaks. For whatever reason, my in-ears seemed to be quieter than I'd wanted, as I mentioned earlier. Busting out the iPad didn't help; there was a lot of lag in moving faders and I didn't want to make things worse.

Looking down set 2, I recall that everything went fine. I always get a little looser at the end of the set. We added in "Fox on the Run," which we usually do just before the last tune. It gives us an opportunity to rock out a bit, a rarity in the yacht rock world. I tell folks we are a classic rock cover band that happens to specialize in yacht rock tunes.

Jen was great, mingling with the crowd on her wireless mic, engaging the dancers, getting involved. In my opinion, it takes some guts to get in front of someone and sing directly to them, or dance with them. I would have a hard time doing it, but she does it with ease and seems to love it.

By the end of the gig, there were still a handful of people dancing and singing along. Even Daniel, who manages SOH for Trey, was surprised that not as many people came out. He thought it may have been weather related (rainy and dank). Maybe it was a Huskies' hangover, with so many fans that went to ESPN College GameDay and then the game. I don't know. But money was guaranteed, so that's cool. We made a great impression on Trey and Daniel and they both said we'd do it again.

We are very lucky in Seattle to have a venue like this. Different from the bars and clubs downtown, but still able to book bands like Sunset Grooves, as well as original rock acts. Just a different vibe and a really friendly and accommodating staff.

Gig report: 10/6/23 Sunset Grooves at the Central Saloon

This gig fell into our laps due to Dennis' other band (Prince tribute) not being able to make their schedules work. We normally wouldn't play the Central as it's more of an originals rock club, but there was a pay guarantee and it would be an easy short set.

I showed up around 7 and parked around the corner. Always a little sketchy in the Pioneer Square area these days. I don't love parking by the beggars and addicts, but it's a free spot and generally, if I leave them alone, they leave me alone. I packed light, with my bass and pedal bag and wore my stage get up as I didn't feel like dealing with the hassle of changing in the bathroom at the Central.

Grunge wall

Just in front of the stage

We were playing with a band called the John Hughes Experience, where the band played 80's songs with projected content behind them. They did a sound check and seemed to sound OK. While they were up there, Dennis mentioned he had had the sound guy at a previous show there and had some issues. He said the guy wasn't great and that he was sort of not easy to work with.

Sound check seemed to take longer than we expected, but eventually, they finished. We then got up there and started our setup. As usual, I brought my Zoom B2Four pedal, a few cords, my IEMs, a bass, and that's it. While setting up, Ben, the bassist for the JHE offered his Ampeg Portaflex and 15" cabinet, which I appreciated. I didn't think I'd need it as I was going to use my in-ears, but sadly, that wasn't to be the case.

As mentioned earlier, the sound guy was struggling. Don't know if he had an off day or what, but when I told him I also had in-ears (as do Jen, Dusty and Dennis), he responded, "You guys have 4 IEMs?" As if being a sound guy wasn't in his job description for the day. He plugged our transmitters into a console behind the bass rig and then scooted back to his sound booth to get us dialed in.

He went first with Dusty, then Dennis, Jen and me, and for each one of us, he had troubles. We could hear him on the wedges, but he couldn't hear us speaking back to him via our mics. Or he could hear us speaking, but we couldn't hear him on stage. Back and forth it went. When he got to me, I could hear him in the in-ears, but he couldn't hear me out front. It was stupid. Finally, I just decided to use the floor wedges and the Ampeg and try my luck. I did ask if I could use the DI he had plugged in to the Ampeg, and he acted like it was a huge deal. I plugged it into the Zoom and we were good to go.

Ampeg on the right.

Getting ready to play.

We had a quick 1-hour set, and we stuck to some heavier tunes due to it being a rock club after all. Soundwise, I could hear myself pretty well with earplugs in. Even though I don't usually like hearing bass in the floor monitors, it didn't sound too bad and I augmented it a bit with the Ampeg behind me. Vocally, I didn't have much in the monitors, but luckily I could hear my head voice via my earplugs.

Many, many years ago, 20 or more, I played the Central with a little power trio called Ethyl. Back then, I had just started singing background vocals. One night we sound checked and then we played. I recorded all our shows back then and upon watching back, I realized I did not have enough of my vocals in the monitor mix. Everything I sang was flat and really rough. These days, I sing a lot more and am a bit more confident in what I'm doing. Last night, without much vox in the mix, I made an effort to hear the note I was playing on bass and stack on top of that. I think it worked out ok.

Performance-wise, no glitches or trainwrecks. We dusted of Toto's "Hold the Line" for the first time in a long time. We just practiced on our own at home and trusted that we'd get it right, and it was pretty good. Everything else was pretty well received also. Nice Friday night crowd for us.

Following us was the 6-piece John Hughes Experience. They started their set with "Video Killed the Radio Star," which would've been great, if the sound guy had the keyboards dialed in. For whatever reason, there were no keys on this keyboard heavy song. The poor keys player (who looked a lot like a skinny Kevin from "The Office") just banged on his keys, but the sound guy didn't go fix it until AFTER the song.

Aside from that glitch, the set went pretty well. They played along to videos and had vintage 80's videos between songs. To me, it brought the mood down a bit because everyone had to quiet down to watch/hear those videos. It's a cool idea and the executed it pretty well, but it was a weird dynamic for everyone to have to pay attention between songs without banter.

John Hughes Experience.

Ben and his Ric sounded great out front. He played some really great lines and was true to the songs bass parts. I do wish he had done the galloping bass part in "Don't You (Forget About Me)" instead of playing it straight, but I'm picking nits. Otherwise, they were really good and, for a first show, impressive. There were some deep cuts that had me and some others looking on our phones to see what the songs were, but I'd play with them again, for sure.

Next up: Sunset Grooves at the Sleight of Hand SODO winery.

Gig report: 9/30/23 Sunset Grooves at the Bite of Broadview

I love the back-to-back gigs and I also hate them. I love 'em because I get to play music. Nothing I'd rather do. I hate them because of the waiting around and the commute and the getting home tired, etc. But I am not complaining. It's what players like me strive for.

This year, I had Planets on Friday, 9/29. Then I had Sunset Grooves on Saturday, 9/30. Looking back, same thing happened last year, with Planets on 9/23, and then SGs on 9/24. Good times.

This gig was my second time playing the Bite of Broadview, the third time overall for the Sunset Grooves (last year's write up is here: BOB 2022. For some reason, I thought it was quite chilly last year and in reading through the recap quickly, apparently it was 70° but ended up cooling off. This year, we are getting another bit of an Indian summer, and it was in the high 60's, with an expected cool off after the sun went down.

Earlier in the day, Dusty messaged the group chat with the suggestion that we go with a "70's denim vibe," which is cool, if you have "70's denim vibe" clothes, which I don't. I was planning on wearing my flamingo suit, since I'd be on a big stage and it might be cool out. But then I pivoted, going with the Canadian tuxedo look. I don't have cool vintage jeans, but just a pair of Levis and a jean jacket on top.

After spending all day troubleshooting, pulling out, shopping for, installing, and then troubleshooting a dishwasher, I didn't have much time to get ready. Luckily, it's getting to be second nature, so I packed up both L-1000s, packed up the pedalboard, grabbed the flamingo suit, shirt and white shoes, just in case, then headed out the door for the Shoreline area again.

Putting in the new dishwasher pre gig.

I got there and last year, next to the stage, there was a "green room," which consisted of a canopy and some tables. This year, nothing. Nowhere to put gear or hang out. Mainly concerned about putting a couple K worth of gear on the ground in the open, but I trusted in the goodness of others (it worked out).

Haley was meeting me there as she needed her SS card for a job she got in Bellingham. Though she's only been back at school for a week, anytime I get to see her, especially when it's at a gig, it's special. She showed up and we got to hang for a little bit. I got us some dinner at a food truck selling crepes (quite good) and got our grub on.

The kid and me.

Since this gig was up north and a lot of my crew lives up there, I asked people to come out. Cass drove out, Steve and Salena showed up, as did his mates Dan and Alan. We all got to catch up a bit and it was nice to have some support for a change.

Usually when we play out, we have to provide the PA and lights. For that reason, it's always super nice to play a gig where there's a stage, lights, PA and a sound guy. The band before us did classic rock and did it pretty well and they were sounding great out front. They did their thing and then we got setup and ready to go.

Stage with classic rock band.

One thing I love about the SG gig is that it encouraged me to try out stuff I otherwise would not have. I'm able to dress up, play a different pedal and also use IEMs. It does make the load in/load out a lot easier, but in a case like this gig, I did have to rely on the sound person to have my mix dialed in. My IEM receiver/transmitter also seems to be weird at times. I don't know if it's normal, or if my units have problems. I get some interference from time to time. Last night wasn't too bad, but I'd love a gig with no weird glitches.

Everything sounded pretty good otherwise, but I did have some issues with the bass being too loud, then the keyboards too quiet (and then too loud), and Jen's vocals being too loud. Easy enough for me to tell the sound guy to adjust, but still annoying when he wasn't getting it perfect. I ended up just dealing with what I had.

Getting announced by Mike the MC.

Set 1 with the Hog, set 2 with the Gold.

Another issue was that it was quite chilly on stage. My basses were all sharp due to the cold, my fingers kept sticking to the strings. Kept me from sweating, though, so there was a positive to it all. We powered through the first set and for me, I played pretty well. I got through my nemesis, "Brandy," without issues. Most songs ended up being fine. We took a quick break and then got back onstage but had to cut our set short due to a hard stop at 10pm. We ended up trimming out about 5 songs, but ended up having a great time anyway.

As mentioned, load out was easy and quick and I was home by 10:45.

Next up: Sunset Grooves at the Central.

Gig report: 9/29/23 Planets in the Ocean at Darrell's Tavern

We were trying to put shows together and this is one we struggled with. On paper, it was an odd match: our little indie rock trio with a Neil Young tribute band (Shakey) and an old jangle guitar pop band (Chimestone) in a dive bar that bills itself as the bar "where your dad used to drink." In reality, it seemed to work out ok, despite some techinicial issues at the jump.

It's Darrell's. A billiards room with one table.

Load in was at 7 so, like a good little soldier, I showed up at 7 and loaded in. I brought my gold L1K, my Orange Terror Bass and Avatar 212. The plan was to let everyone use my rig, which would make it easy enough for everyone. Cass also was sharing his drums but the drummer for Chimestone is a little particular about wanting to use his own kit but also not allowing anyone else to use it. So there's that. Needless to say, a little weird, but what are you going to do?

Despite us showing up when we were supposed to, there was no sign of the sound guy. Around 8 or so, when we were supposed to start, Robb asked the bartender where the sound guy was. She told him, "he'll show up when he shows up. No worries," or something to that effect. Again, what are you gonna do?

People started showing up for the night. Kathy Moore was part of Shakey, as was Gary Westlake. Andy Stoller (gulp) was on bass, simply showing up with his Fender Jazz an iPad and a music stand. Shakey was there to do Neil Young covers, which I didn't think would be my thing, but after watching them, I could get into it. More on that to come.

The Chimestone boys showed up as well. Jonathan Plum from London Bridge plays guitar in that band and it's made up of a bunch of NHS graduates. Brothers Ted and Eric on bass and guitar, respectively, Jake on vocals and Paul on drums. I don't know if Paul went to NHS or not, but they've been around for many years, since high school, I think.

Anyway, the sound guy finally showed up close to 9pm and started setting up. I'm thinking he'd hurry since he was so late, but he didn't seem to care. He started by putting mics on all the drums, including an overhead. This room didn't need it, as it was not that big and wouldn't need much more than a kick drum mic. But then, I am no sound guy, so there's that.

So he took his time and finally, around 9:30 (like the old days), Shakey took the stage and I was pleasantly surprised. I already know first-hand that Kathy is an incredible musician and guitarist. I was so happy to see her and be a fan this time around. Hearing her with Gary, Andy and Luka was really great. Andy is the pro's pro, just so smooth and relaxed on his bass. He just plugged in and played. He really played some tasty lines and leaned into the low D by using his Hipshot X-tender. Was cool to see and hear. His bass sounded great on my rig and he was just the best.

Andy, Gary, Kathy and Luca on the drums

We took the stage next and got to work. The stage is weird at Darrell's. It's long and narrow, so we had Cass in the corner, my bass cab to his right, me standing in front of him, with Robb and his gear to my left. Robb's amp was SUPER LOUD and I tried to compensate by also turning up. Trouble was, I am simply not used to hearing my 212 and Orange and I couldn't find a good sound for my ears on stage. I kept fiddling, but I just dealt with it.

Weird stage

Luckily, I could hear my vocals pretty well and had a good time singing and playing the tunes. We had a nice turnout, but truthfully, most everyone was there to see Chimestone, or they were regulars at Darrell's. We got some really nice reactions from people there and overall played a pretty good show. Devin shot a show video and I'll take a look and assess later.

Chimestone did their thing and they are really good at it: 90s-tinged jangly guitar pop. They brought a bunch of fans and everyone there really liked them. Jonathan was great and energetic. Jake has this Liam Gallagher (Oasis) thing going on; he closed his eyes most of the time and kept his hands in his pockets. Totally on brand for 90s-tinged jangly guitar pop!

Chimestone boys

Had a good time hanging with the band and some friends that showed up. We always enjoy playing out, and Darrell's is cool enough, but we're hoping to step it up with some different venues and different bands.

Artwork by @drawitinone on IG

Next up: Sunset Grooves at the Bite of Broadview.

Gig report: 9/21/23 Sunset Grooves at Lake Whatcom (private party)

We got to play a private party yesterday, as part of a local biotech company's end-of-summer celebration or something. All we knew going into it was that it was called "Alpinealooza," or something like that. Turns out, the company was called Alpine Immune Sciences, and we were playing at the CEO's summer cabin on Lake Whatcom just outside of Bellingham.

Since the location was about 90 miles away, AND they wanted us to play starting around 1:30pm, that meant early wake up for me at 6:30. After morning rituals, I drove to Jen's in Ballard, usually a 30-35 minute drive, but for some reason, traffic was lousy, and it took closer to 45 minutes.

Good news was, they were all loaded up. Bad news was because of me, we got on the road about 30 minutes after we wanted to. Dennis drove Eric and I and, after a quick stop at Starbucks, we were off.

I didn't take the day off work, but did bring my work laptop and took 2 60 minute calls both on my way to Jen's and in Dennis' back seat. Aggravatingly, though I "needed" to be on both calls, it turns out that I didn't need to be on either call. No worries, still good to show my face.

There was an accident on the way up, which added more time to our delay. Dennis narrowly avoided some accidents on his own as well, a few times coming up rapidly behind traffic that he wasn't expecting to be at a standstill. Hairy moments, but after our fairly uneventful drive otherwise, we made it to Lake Whatcom.

The summer house on Lake Whatcom

The backdrop to our stage

The backside of the summer house

We parked and got our stuff down to the beach. As with many beaches, the ground is not level, but a slope down to the water. This location was no different. Thankfully it was sunny and fairly dry; it did rain the day before and walking around the side of the house was a little damp and slick in spots, but not where we performed. We got the gear down there and commenced setup.

I brought both L-1000s and my Zoom pedal and a change of clothes. On the way up, Dennis realized he forgot his performance wear and once we got set up, he realized he also forgot his in-ear monitors! He left around 11:30 to the nearby Guitar Center (20 minutes or so away) and disappeared. We finished setting up and partook in the catered food, some BBQ brisket and smoked chicken, Caesar's salad, cornbread and some sparkling waters. It was great!

The party guests showed up while we were setting up and they were a crew that seemed pretty, well, biotech-y. They were nice enough and I was surprised that many of them had brought bathing suits to take advantage of the lake, where the party host had put out kayaks, paddle boards, as well as giving rides on jet skis. I can't imagine partying with my coworkers and opting to put on a bathing suit in front of them all. Anyway, moving on...

After eating, Dennis came back and had on a spiffy pink short-sleeved button-down shirt. Looked fantastic, with tropical theme to boot. And some new white pants. Apparently, he stopped by an adjacent TJ Maxx and plucked those items off the rack. It was perfect! He took a few minutes to get situated and before long, we kicked it off.

Dusty got a new, matte-finished kit

The staging area; I was off to the left, stage right

The basses

Prior to the gig, I took our setlist and programmed in patches on my Zoom B2 Four. I tried to come up with tones similar to the artist's original sounds. I didn't really edit anything; I ended up going through Zoom's default patches and comparing and listening to what I liked the best. Though I don't know if anyone out front noticed, I could definitely tell in my IEMs and I enjoyed the variety and interaction it required to make sure I had the right patches dialed up.

The actual terrain was challenging as well, since, as mentioned earlier, it was not level. I was having to lean towards the front of the "stage" all afternoon as I was downhill from my mic stand. We didn't really have a crowd either. The people that were there were eating, playing cornhole, going in the lake or the hot tub, or standing by the drinks. No one was dancing or really even seeming to pay attention to us, but we sort of expected that going in; it was a Thursday afternoon, after all!

Performance-wise, I was happy with how things went for the most part. "Brandy" has been challenging for me lately, don't know why. I know the parts, both on bass and vocally, but I've been goofing it up, like I have the yips or something. I made sure to run it a few times this week and as I played it yesterday, definitely was mindful at not messing up where I normally was messing up. I think I had one flub, but otherwise felt pretty good about it.

We came up to a break, grabbed some ice cream sandwiches from an ice cream truck that the host had brought in, and then jumped back on stage. When we started the first set, it was sunny and warm and thankfully we had the canopy as it did get pretty hot in the sun. During the second set, however, though it was still sunny and beautiful, the wind picked up and it got quite a bit cooler.

The set was looser as well since we knew that no one really cared about what we were doing. I was walking around with my long 25' foot cable, just listening to the FOH and stretching my legs, then racing back to my mic to sing backing vocals. It was just fun, outside practice at this point.

We finally finished up and though no one was overly enthusiastic when we played, lots of people offered good feedback. I think the crowd was just less about the live music and more about the activities and socializing. No worries, though, we got paid either way.

After packing up, we took the sound guy (kid from Western) back to his house 20 minutes north, and then headed back to Seattle. I got back just in time to get my car from Jen's and head over to Robb's for a quick PITO practice before heading home for the night.

Here's a couple more pix of yesterday:

Yes, they had a private dock

Unclear as to why the open mouths

 

DTG

From last week's recording session with Jonathan, I mentioned him being the first person I recorded with. I asked if he had the recordings and he didn't, but to reach out to Andre, who does.

In high school, Andre was a year ahead of me and was the school's shredder. He was in the cool kids band, called the Unexcused. They always closed out all the school talent shows. Aside from being the only decent bassist at school, I'm not sure how he and I hooked up. Maybe it was through Todd, who was the school's baddest drummer. He and I did play together in the jazz bands throughout school. But, maybe he was in the Jazz Ensemble (think varsity) and I was in Jazz Band (think JV).

Anyway, somehow, the three of us hooked up and recorded some songs at Jonathan's house. I super-duper vaguely remember practicing at Todd's house, about 2 miles away from where I am now. I do not remember whatsoever recording any tunes, other than doing it at Jonathan's house. I think we did record separately, building it up Lego-style.

I reached out to Andre today and he sent me a link to a Dropbox that had all the stuff he did in high school, including the stuff he, Todd and I did, called DTG ('Dre, Todd, Gwon). I forgot about that name (did I even know about it?) and definitely forgot that we did more than one song (called Marsupials).

Looking through the Dropbox files, there are 5 songs! Marsupials, Fire in the Hole, For Always, Shadows and Hot Potato(!). For now, I've heard the first three, though For Always is a guitar instrumental. Well, they're all instrumentals; that one is guitar only.

In hearing Marsupials, though I remember the main riff, as I was listening, some of the stuff came back to me. But the wildest part was hearing this from 35 or so years ago. I must have been 15-16? And Joe Satriani was big at the time and it was pretty clear that Andre had that influence going. All three of us were pretty dialed in for our age; I've heard adult bands that were worse than us.

I started Fire in the Hole and I do not remember that song at all. But, as I listened (and got confirmation from Andre that it was me), just based on the bass part, I knew I played it. I still do the same stylistic things and parts. Though the song is sort of dated (late 80's instrumental guitar rock), we were pretty dang good. Sure, we overplayed, but who didn't at that age?

I'm gonna listen to Shadows now and do a stream-of-consciousness reaction.

• only 2:48. Minor arpeggiated guitar, no bass or drums. Could be cheesy; hearing potential bass parts in my brain right now.
• And I come in early, ahead of the beat; what else is new.
• Pretty contrived part. Trying to stay simple, but busy enough, and it's sort of there.
• Second time through "verse" is OK. Adult me might straighten it out a little more.
• Bridge part: it's passable. Sort of boring, but it works under Andre's soloing.
• Chorus part: not loving it. Choppy, not smooth enough for what the song needs.
• Overall, 6/10. Song was short, one time through the chorus. Given a teenager was recording it (me), it's not that bad.

Now, the last song, Hot Potato, I have no idea. I think it may be along the lines of a Satch Boogie, like a fast shuffle/boogie. Let's see how it sounds. Here are my reactions.

• 4:01, here we go.
• And there's the EVH riff with high hat. Lots of chromatic guitar. Blues based progression.
• Really reminiscent of Let's Go Crazy by Prince.
• A little loose when bass and drums come in.
• Some punches, nothing crazy.
• Beat kicks in, riff repeats. I tried to come up with a nifty bass line to go under the first guitar solo. Todd drops out to high hats.
• Back to a verse/main riff and I am behind the beat; trying to get too tricky. Really pulling the beat back. Sounds like Andre does too on his rhythm guitar at times.
• Ok, to the bass drum punches part. Off time!
• And now the riding the E part. Pretty loose
• And we are done

I see where we were trying to go with that tune, but I'm not positive we got there. However, again, for a trio of high schoolers, I'm not totally turned off.

I think I had my Hohner Steinberger copy at this time and may have recorded with that. Otherwise it was my blue Ibanez SoundGear, but really, I don't know. And I don't think we ever played out live at school.

But then I just had another memory pop up that me, Todd, Andre and a girl named Nicole tried to play in a cover band, where some dude said he could get us into clubs. We practiced a few times in his basement off of Bellevue Way, but it never went anywhere. I think we played Lights by Journey and Heartbreaker by Pat Benetar. Sheesh, that's crazy. I should revisit those memories with Andre sometime.

Free stuff

I love free stuff. I love thrifting things. It gives me great joy to pay a little for something that used to cost a lot, but even better when it's free.

A few weeks ago, someone posted a nice bass rig on Facebook. It was an Ashdown of some sort and I made a comment like, "nice." A day or so later, an old FB friend, Chris, reached out and said he'd give me his old, non-functioning Ashdown head if I wanted it. I said, "Why not, if it's free, let's see what happens?"

I headed to his house in Shoreline/Lake Forest Park area last week and picked it up. He treated me to an espresso (he works for a company that makes espresso machines) and chatted for a few minutes.

I got it home and plugged it in and confirmed that, yes, it does not work. It powers up and gives a super loud hum, like an unplugged instrument cable, only louder.

Last time I had an issue with my amp, it was my Trace Elliot and I gave it to Brian Roe to fix. He had it for a week or two and for about $150, it was fixed. For the Ashdown, I reached out to him and he said he'd take a look. I dropped it off with him last Monday, Labor Day, and now I'm waiting.

He said he needed schematics for the amp, which Chris had, and he got them to me, which I forwarded to Brian. I also posted that video on Facebook, which was then commented on by Mark Gooday, who was the founder of Ashdown. Though I've heard from TB that he's not the most technical dude. Which seemed to be true as he just told me to contact his service lead, Dave Green, who then advised me to take it to a tech.

I was hoping it could be something quick and easy to fix, but I have no clue when it comes to these things. Here's hoping Brian can fix it for cheap and then I'll have a killer new amp to work with.

I realized all my amps are British: The Trace, an Orange Terror Bass, and hopefully now, the Ashdown.

Stay tuned.

Studio days are the best days

I had the pleasure of spending most of my day at London Bridge Studios with my old pal Jonathan Plum. He and I went to high school together, him graduating in 1989, me in 1990. Our paths crossed because of music, of course.

My first ever "recording session" was at his parents' house, around the corner from where I currently live now. I had my Peavey Basic 40 amp (which I still own) and we put it in his bedroom closet. I think he had a 4-track at the time and I played bass to a song by our school's best guitarist, Andre Maguire, called Marsupials. On drums was Todd Clineschmidt, and, fun fact, both Andre and Todd still play together in a local surf rock band called the Delstroyers.

Anyway, over the years, I've had a few projects record with Jonathan. First off was a band called Ethyl, where we recorded 6 songs with him in a studio in the Georgetown area of Seattle. Maybe 10 years later, after he was co-owner of London Bridge, I recorded with Lund Bros., doing several tracks that ended up on a record called Sanguine.

By total coincidence, Jonathan started dating a gal who happens to be my bandleader's wife's sister. Who also happens to live next door to where my bandleader lives (the sisters live next door to each other), which also happens to be where we rehearse. So by way of that, Jonathan and I have sort of stayed in touch.

With Planets, Robb has brought in some new songs (and by new, I mean over the past several months) and we've been working on them. We've played them live and decided to finally record with Jonathan. We've most recently done two stints at Robert Lang Studios, but I've really been pushing to work with Jonathan. We had him over to listen to the songs last week, and today we met up at London Bridge Studios to make it happen.

Legendary!

LBS is nestled in the back of what seems to be a small, generic office park. You pull off of the main road, drive up a small hill and there, to the right of some apartments on the other side of the parking lot is London Bridge. From the outside, you'd never know that bands like Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, Candlebox, and more, have recorded there.

My little band was booked for the afternoon and we were planning on doing 3 songs to get drums and bass and as much guitars as we could. I got there, loaded in, and got set up. I had brought both my Trace-Elliot and Orange amps, my 210 and 115 cabinets, and all my pedals. I brought both G&L L-1000s, as well as my Precision. I also brought my work computer as, after all, it was a work day.

Cass set his drums up in front of the legendary brick wall. It seems weird, but once we heard the drums, it all made sense. All the platinum records for the other bands also lend credibility to that wall. I started with the HOG; I wanted to try recording with it as I've recorded with The GOLD before, so I wanted to hear how the other bass sounded.

We started with a song that was first known as "Misguided Head," which was then called "This Is Just a Blip," and now, at the suggestion of Jonathan last week, is now known as "I Unraveled," which is perfect. As with most of our songs (and with all 3 that we recorded today), this song starts with guitar. Robb begins and then Cass and I come in and do our thing.

Our first few takes are to stretch a bit, get a feel for the headphones, the mix, the room and each other. Those takes also get me thinking about what I'm hearing tone-wise for my bass. I brought the Orange but JP recommended on using the sound that got me here. So it was the HOG into my pedals, into my Trace and a pick and off we went.

With "I Unraveled," there's a lot of fast picking and some quick runs in the second verses. There are also some quieter parts where I was doing busier stuff, but toned it down a bit for the recording. We did a few passes, some in-room listens, and then a few more passes. Once Cass felt like he had a good take, Jonathan did some Pro Tools wizardry and cleaned up my timings (I am ahead of the beat a lot), and then had me punch in in some spots.

For the verses, I'd have my Spark Booster turned on, giving the bass tone some hair and grit. I could have used (and have in the past) the AGS circuit on my Tone Hammer pedal, but it was a little *too obnoxious for this song. Being able to toggle the SB on and off worked out just fine as I was able to get the volumes of clean/dirty to be pretty equal. With AGS, it would be too loud and would have to be on for the whole song.

Through the headphones, it sounded clicky and buzzy. Once I got in the control room with the monitor speakers? Wow. Gnarly and aggressive and definitely more affected than any tone I've ever had, but it worked for me. The guys liked it too and JP was down with it, so we worked with it.

After that tune, we busted out "Sit and Spin," a song Robb wrote about the first time he saw Darla at the old Seattle club, the Sit and Spin. It's a pretty basic number based on a bluesy riff Robb has had for a bit. We played it pretty bombastically during rehearsals and JP offered some suggestions based on crashing last week's practice. We used some of them and passed on others. For this tune, I had the SB on the whole time, as the song is pretty loud and dirty.

Weirdly, I thought this song would be more challenging to lock down as it has some E to D string picking, where I skip over the A. I have some trouble with it when practicing, but it seemed to be OK today when we recorded.

As with the last song, we got drums dialed in, then JP did his magic on my bass with the timing, I did some punches, and then it was onto the last song, "Nomenclature." Of the 3 songs, this is the oldest, having started playing it around the January/February timeframe. Robb brought it in and we really loved it.

At first, when we were learning it, I didn't know what to do on the bass. So much of what I do is busy or melodic or syncopated; for this tune, I kept it simple in the verses. Ride the A at the 12th fret in the verses, and then dropping down to the end of the neck in the pre-chorus and choruses. I tried to get Butterfly Boucher on the bass lines, going with octaves and aggressive picking as well.

Ironically, as simple as that part is, it gave me the most problems today. I think part of it was just the fatigue of a 6-7 hour day of recording, listening, punching, and not eating much. The mental part of it is tough enough. I have also never recorded as a pick player, so that muscle (despite playing with a pick for at least 18 months now) is still developing. I really tried to focus on precision and accuracy and found my right hand getting tired from holding the pick so tightly.

Anyway, with "Nomenclature," Cass was getting tired too. He beats the heck out of his drums, really getting his money's worth and by the end of the session, we were both dragging. Luckily, he got a take he liked after a few tries, and my parts were easy enough to clean up with a few more punches. Robb did some guitars, and the day was over before we knew it.

The plan now is for Robb to get the tracks from JP, and then to try mixing at his home studio. We could have JP do it, but that's another several hundo that we'd just as soon save. Besides, it was Jonathan that suggested it and Robb is super excited to try mixing as he's never done it before.

The three of us feel great after the session. Drama that we had had with other bands and band members was non-existent. The fact that we trusted Jonathan as we knew him before coming in, was helpful as well. Not that other engineers were bad or lesser than, but having history with JP was definitely beneficial, to me, at least.

Overall, super excited with what we did today and already looking forward to getting back to LBS again in the future.

photo by Mike Mitchell